A year ago today.

It’s March 26th again. I recall last March 26th. It was a Wednesday, and I went to visit my mother in the spinal rehab section of Mount Sinai hospital. I had missed seeing her sitting in a wheelchair the day before because I had arrived after her PT Session. That Wednesday though, I arrived around ten or so in the morning. My mom’s PT had been cancelled because they needed to give her more blood since her blood count was down. That was also when they noticed a rather large bruise on her left leg, one that had not been there when I had been there the day before.

A few doctors came in to look at it and decided that she needed to be transferred from the Spinal Rehab section to the MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit). One of the awesome nurses from Spinal Rehab (Joe) insisted on coming down with us so off we went, mom mom in the bed, her ventilator, Joe, the two transport guys, someone from respiratory, and me.

I remember before Joe went back up to his floor he told me that he was sure it wasn’t anything serious and that my mom would probably be back up in rehab in a few days.

I wish he had been right.

It turned out that she was experiencing internal bleeding in her leg. They went in to try and find it and stop the bleeding. It was a long day, the doctors bringing her back to the MICU after midnight. They hadn’t found where the blood was coming from and if it continued the skin could possibly die because of the pressure being put on it by the build up of blood.

Of course that wasn’t the only danger present. She could go in to shock from the blood loss. When they brought her back and I saw her, she was wide eyed and staring at the ceiling as if she was indeed in shock.

I remember going home around one in the morning in a taxi, crying the whole way as I tried to figure out how to tell my father what might happen. It was the day before his birthday and also the day that everything really went to shit.